People's History: Bill Clinton (Chap 24)

SummaryWhen Clinton vowed to end big government,
our health and education funding went
away. But funds for war and money spent
on business would continue their ascent.

ChapterA question can be posed about the Clinton legacy.
The answer's clear. Despite the rhetoric, his sympathy
for working people was surpassed by perks and subsidies
for business and the war machine, and efforts to appease
the rich. The damages are glaring on his resume,
as all his plans to get big government to fade away
diminished health and education. 'Opportunity'
for jobs, he called his act to boost responsibility -
but jobs were nonexistent. Military's "dividend
for peace" was mythical, as Cold War funding wouldn't end,
despite our "running out of demons" (till we found Iraq
and Yugoslavia). And we were managing to mock
the call to peace by selling weapons to the poorest lands,
like Indonesia with the rogue Suharto. Our demands
for dominance in trade were met by NAFTA, Mexico
the victim of our cheaper crops. And in another "show
of strength," no food or medicine to Cuba or Iraq!
And our United Nations animosities still shock
the world -- no bans on cluster bombs, no bans on mines, no court
for crimes of war. Our war mentality could not support
the call of human rights. Consider this absurdity:
a man responsible for terror and the travesty
of dying children is impeached for personal affairs.
So in the end, if questioned how this President compares
to men of vision -- Martin Luther King and even Ike,
who saw the guns of war as stealing from the poor, a strike
against our humanness -- we'd have to say that Clinton failed,
like many others, to respect the words that once prevailed
upon our sense of justice: the "pursuit of happiness."
A living wage and peace are what each human should possess.